Railway house car door structure



March 2, 1965 T. c. SODDY 3,171,164

RAILWAY HOUSE CAR DOOR STRUCTURE Filed NOV. 14, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet l FIG I T. C. SODDY RAILWAY HOUSE CAR DOOR STRUCTURE March 2, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 14, 1961 United States Patent 3,171,164 RAILWAY HOUSE CAR DGOR STRUCTURE Thomas C. Soddy, Downers Grove, Ill., assignor to American Seal-Kap Corporation of Delaware, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Filed Nov. 14, 1961, Ser. No. 152,324 4 Claims. (Cl. 20-23) The invention relates to door structure such as is adapted particularly, but not exclusively, for enlarged sliding doors generally used on railway box cars, refrigerator cars or on similar installations where it is desirable to guard against loss of loose material, or passage of moisture and dirt, and to insure thermo-insulation.

Among the objects of the invention are to furnish rigid door structure of light weight for the size of the door; to engage the upright edges of the closed door with adjacent wall post members so as to prevent movement of the door transversely of its length; to facilitate the application of gaskets and, in railway car doors, to facilitate the application of supplementary grain doors which are commonly nailed across the door opening; to expedite door opening and closing and locking operations, and to arrange for ready removal of grain trapped between inner and outer door panels. These and other detail objects, as will appear from the following description, are attained by the structure shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a railway box car showing a main door and an auxiliary door movable lengthwise of the car wall.

FIG. 2 is a horizontal longitudinal section on line 22 of FIG. 1 and drawn to an enlarged scale.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are vertical transverse sections through the auxiliary door and are taken on lines 33 and 44 of FIG. 1L

FIG. 5 is a similar section through the main door and is taken on line 5-5 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a detail horizontal section on line 66 of FIG. 4 but is drawn to a larger scale and shows the locking shaft turned to unlocking position and partly opening the auxiliary door.

A portion of the car side to which the doors are applied includes an angular side sill 1 and a reinforcing girder 3'extending throughout the length of the door opening and provided with brackets 5, 6 carrying angular track structure 7, 8 respectively which mount antifriction elements 9, 10 respectively. A main door 11 is supported directly on balls 9. An auxiliary door 12 is supported on rollers 10 by means of an elongated carriage 13 and crankarms 14 having depending trunnions 15, journaled in the carriage, and upstanding trunnions 16 journaled on the door. Accordingly the auxiliary door may move both lengthwise and transversely of the car wall. Upright posts 17, 18 define the ends of the door opening and are shown as rolled steel 2 sections each having a web disposed transversely of the wall. An upper side plate 19 and roof sheets 20 are carried by posts 17, 18 and other side wall osts. p Main door 11 includes an upright front (left hand) edging 23 and a rear (right hand) edging 24. Auxiliary door 12 includes a front (right hand) edging 25 and a rear (left hand) edging 26. Each of these edgings is of extruded metal, for example, aluminum or aluminum alloy, and includes a main channel-like section opening toward the middle of the door and nesting the ends of transverse panel members 27, 28 respectively, as disclosed in application Serial No. 15,376 filed by the present applicant March 16, 1960.

The auxiliary door rear edging 26 includes a web extending transversely of the thickness of the door and offset 3,171,164 Patented Mar. 2, 1965 diagonally at 29 intermediate the channel flanges 30, 31. A third flange 32 extends from the web in the opposite direction from flange 31. The offset portion of the Web cooperates with flange 32 to provide a recess 33 which receives a gasket 34 secured to the diagonal portion of the Web and projecting therefrom outwardly of the recess to oppose a diagonal filler plate 35 seated in an angle in a pressed 2 bar 36 forming a part of post 18 (see FIG. 2). Recess 33 also receives the margin of the inner flange 37 of a 2 bar 36 forming a part of post 18 and inclined diagonally of the door in a direction substantially opposite to the inclination of web 29 and projects into the opening so that movement of door flange 32 to the left alongside the inner face of inclined flange 37 forces the door inwardly or" the wall and compresses gasket 34 angularly as the door moves to its final closed position in which the rearmost surface of edging 26 abuts post 18. This forms a seal between the door and Wall which is rendered more effective by the thrust of the door flange 32 against the 2 bar flange by lading pressing outwardly against the door.

Auxiliary door front edging 25 has a transverse web offset at 40 intermediate the channel flanges 41, 42. Other flanges 43, 44 on the edging extend outwardly from the door and receive between them an overlap flange 45 on the main door edging 23 coresponding to flange 32 on the auxiliary door rear edging. These edgings firmly interengage as the main door moves into closed position and prevent relative movement of the doors transversely of the wall. Flanges 46, 47 on edging 25 have terminal grooves facing generally in opposite directions and receiving the marginal portions of a supplemental edge member 48 of U-shaped cross section which cooperates with the diagonal portion 411 of the edging channel web to form a crooked passage for nails N by which the usual wooden grain door G is attached. The passage distorts the nails so that they cannot work loose, although they may be intentionally withdrawn when the grain door is to be removed.

Journaled on auxiliary door 12 is an upright locking shaft 50 having ofiset lugs 51 at its lower and upper ends disposed to engage keepers 52 (FIG. 4) on girder 3 and a door header53 respectively. When the door is closed (FIG. 1) a lock bolt 63 at the front lower corner of the door engages a socket 64 on girder 3 and holds the door against outward movement, independently of the locking shaft lugs. A handle take-up 65 on main door 11 engages a stop 66 on track 7 to hold the main door in advanced position and in abutting end-to-end relation with auxiliary door 12 when the doors are closed.

While main door 11 may be opened and closed independently of auxiliary door 12, when the wide door opening is not required, for loading or unloading the car, auxiliary door 12 may only be opened after the main door has been opened at least far enough to clear its flange 45 from auxiliary door flanges 43, 44. At this time bolt 63 will be raised and handle lever 49 swung up, out and to the right to rotate shaft 50 and lugs 51 in the direction of arrow A (FIG. 6). This will cause lugs 51 to engage the inner faces of keepers 52 and cam the door outwardly and forwardly so that rear edging flanges 32 will clear post flange 37 and, by grasping a handle H, the rear of the door may be swung manually outwardly on adjacent crank 14. Then the door may be rolled to the left away from the door opening.

To close the auxiliary door, it is rolled forwardly by a handle H until carrier 13 hits stop (FIG. 1) on girder 3. The momentum of the door and the manual thrust on the rear of the door swings the rear crank 14 to place the door in the FIG. 6 position. Thereupon rotation of shaft 59 in the opposite direction to arrow A will'thrust the door to the left to the fully closed position shown in FIG. 2. In such closing movement, rear trunnion 16 enters a keeper 62, corresponding generally to keeper 52, but opening in the opposite direction and guiding the door inwardly of the door opening to position flange 32 so as to engage flange 37 as offset lugs 51 move the door rearwardly.

Upper cranks 5 have depending trunnions 55 journaled on the door and upstanding trunnions 56 mounting rollers 57 engaging the inner face of a retainer 58 extending from side plate 19. A pitman 59 connects crank trunnions 56 and provides for simultaneous movement of the cranks and with cranks 14 at the bottom of the door.

The horizontal portions of the upper and lower door panel members 28 and the upright edgings form a closed compartment but if the door inner wall should be punctured accidentally, by a lift truck or otherwise, grain or other loose lading or moisture could leak into the closed compartment and be objectionable, e.g., the grain could accumulate, moisten and swell. To avoid such result, an opening 69 in bottom panel web "it? is normally closed by a flexible flap 71 of canvas, rubber or plastic which would prevent leakage of grain or other loose lading. When the door is open the flap is easily pushed upwardly by a workmans finger and any accumulation within the door would be discharged.

The above described structure attains the objectives set forth in the introductory portion of the specification. Lading bearing against the inner rear part of the auxiliary door presses flanges 32 and 44 against the opposing faces of post flange 37 and main door flange 45 and there is no load on the crank arm mounting elements. Interior load on the doors near their meeting edges is met by the locking elements on rod 5t) and lock 63 and the cooperating elements on the car body. The interengaging portions of the auxiliary door and the main door form an eddy pocket at P and the inner face of the auxiliary door is adapted for mounting one end of a supplemental wooden grain door secured at its opposite end to the furring of wall post 17. There can be no spacing of the auxiliary door rear edging and the wall post which will set up a leakage column of grain or other loose lading.

The details of the structure may be varied substantially without departing from the spirit of the invention and the exclusive use of those modifications coming within the scope of the claims is contemplated.

What is claimed is:

1. A railway car door comprising a rectangular metal frame including a rear upright member of channel cross section with a web extending substantially transversely of the general plane of the door and with spaced flanges extending from the member web in a direction inwardly from the door edge and parallel to said plane, there being a flange extending from the member web in the opposite direction, the member web having a portion olfset inwardly of the door, the outer part of the offset portion forming an abutment surface for engaging the post of a wall opening, and an inner part of the offset portion being inclined to the abutment surface and forming a recess with the latter-mentioned flange, a compressible gasket secured to said inclined portion and projecting outwardly of the recess and facing diagonally across the recess but inboard of the abutment surface toward the latter mentioned flange.

2. A car door metal edge member generally channel shaped in cross section and including a web, for forming the door edge, said web being offset transversely of its length between said flanges, and a pair of spaced flanges projecting from the margins of said web in one direction, and a single flange projecting in the opposite direction from said web at the margin of the inner portion of the offset and forming with said latter-mentioned flange a recess in the edge of the door adapted to receive a gasket.

3. A railway car door upright edging structure comprising an elongated member of channel section having a web disposed transversely of the general plane of the door to which it is to be applied and offset intermediate its margins transversely of its length, there being spaced flanges extending from said web in one direction and there being a flange extending from said web in the opposite direction and provided with a groove facing the 7 web, a cooperating similarly elongated member having a marginal portion seated in said groove and having a web paralleling said offset web and having a lip seated in said groove, said parallel offset webs providing a space between them to receive and distort a nail when it is driven into said space.

4. The combination with a railway car wall having a door opening and provided with an upright metal post at one end of said opening, the post including a flange inclined transversely of the wall and extending from bottom to top of the door opening and projecting from the remainder of the post into said opening, and a door slidable past said post forwardly and rearwardly of the wall to closed and opened positions relative to said opening and having an upright rear edging member of channel cross section including a web extending transversely of the general plane of the door with spaced flanges at the inner and outer faces of the door extending from said web inwardly of the door and having another flange extending from said web outwardly of the door into overlapping relation with the inner face of said post inclined flange, door body members extending lengthwise of the door and received between said door edging first-mentioned flanges and secured thereto and forming the inner and outer faces of the door, the transverse web of the door edging being offset inwardly from the adjacent end of the door to form a recess adjacent to the outwardly extending flange on the edging, and a gasket running the full height of the door and secured to said offset web and facing across said recess toward said latter-mentioned flange and compressed throughout its length, by the movement of the door lengthwise toward said offset, with said latter-mentioned flange engaging the inclined flange of the post.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITEDSTATES PATENTS 1,200,639 Moore et al. Oct. 10, 1916 1,379,081 Campbell May 24, 1921 1,400,699 Test Dec. 20, 1921 1,906,096 Priddy Apr. 25, 1933 2,160,844 Dwyer June 6, 1939 2,667,243 Fenske Jan. 26, 1954 2,834,067 Beauchamp May 13, 1958 2,964,808 Kloess Dec. 20, 1960 2,997,752 Hendrikson et al. Aug. 29, 1961 3,045,295 Beauchamp July 24, 1962 

2. A CAR DOOR METAL EDGE MEMBER GENERALLY CHANNEL SHAPED IN CROSS SECTION AND INCLUDING A WEB, FOR FORMING THE DOOR EDGE, SAID WEB BEING OFFSET TRANSVERSELY OF ITS LENGTH BETWEEN SAID FLANGES, AND A PAIR OF SPACED FLANGES PROJECTING FROM THE MARGINS OF SAID WEB IN ONE DIRECTION, AND A SINGLE FLANGE PROJECTING IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION FROM SAID WEB AT THE MARGIN OF THE INNER PORTION OF THE OFFSET AND FORMING WITH SAID LATTER-MENTIONED FLANGE A RECESS IN THE EDGE OF THE DOOR ADAPTED TO RECEIVE A GASKET. 